The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has been making steady and sure progress in providing electronic public services to the Hong Kong community in the process of building an E-government.
It has already provided services online for 78 percent of public services that are amenable to the electronic mode of delivery. It has set a target of providing e-option to 90 percent of such services by end-2003.
This was stated by Alan Wong Chi-kong, director of information technology services, when he delivered a speech at an international expo and forum on information technology (IT) innovation held in Jinan in east China's Shandong Province Friday, according to a government press release.
Wong said that the Hong Kong SAR Government has successfully implemented one of its flag-ship E-government initiatives, the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme through which members of the public can obtain over 130 types of public services on-line around-the-clock.
Wong also noted that the Hong Kong SAR government would bring in new computer systems and would in stages replace citizens' identity (ID) cards with multi-application Smart ID Cards from mid-2003.
To promote and encourage the wider adoption of e-business, the SAR government has also developed one of the world's first ever web-based electronic tendering system which enables itself to issue tenders and receive bids securely through the Internet.
"Our target is to carry out the majority of government procurement tenders through electronic means by end 2003," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2002)
